GREAT WAYS TO KEEP YOUR SPIRITS UP DURING

PRISONERS OF WAR in Colditz were famed for fashioning elaborate architectural models from matchsticks, and whilst trapped in our houses due to Coronavirus, we could all do the same. Depending on how long the pandemic lasts, and whether it’s still possible to get matches a fortnight from now, we could find ourselves building anything from a fiftieth-scale model of Anne Hathaway’s House in Stratford upon Avon to a detailed, life-size copy of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

W E’VE ALL got a few broken appliances lying around that we were once planning to repair. Maybe you have an old toaster that’s blown a fuse, a hoover with a snapped drive belt, or a wireless set that went on the fritz back in the 90s. With a whole year to kill, there’s never been a better opportunity to get out your toolbox and have a tinker. Just remember not to let the red and the brown wires touch each other, and have fun.

INTERVIEWED by Andrew Marr at the start of the Covid-19 crisis, Stephen Fry said that he intended to spend the enforced lockdown period learning the international language of Esperanto. So why not do the same as the famously erudite Jeeves & Wooster star? By the time the all-clear is sounded, you and Stephen will be able to hold a halting, stilted conversation about Esperanto with a handful of other linguists scattered around the world. Or, to put that another way, “Vi kaj Stephen povos teni emfaza konversacio pri Esperanto kun kelkaj mil aliaj Weirdos tutmonde.”

SITTING in the house with the same two or three people to talk to for the thick end of a year is enough to drive anyone up the wall, so why not keep yourself sane by pretending to be someone else? Spend a day being your favourite movie characters, such as practically perfect Mary Poppins, hilariously nutty Mrs Doubtfire, or eccentric caretaker Jack out of The

Shining.